I just finished watching a special on PBS about the USS Wisconsin.  As many of you know I have a great appreciation for military history, and I’m also a sucker for battleships.

I found the following interesting.

• The ship was commissioned in 1944 to fight in WWII, which ended on 1945.
• The ship was decommissioned in 1948, but recommissioned in 1951 for the Korean Conflict.
• It was mothballed in 1958, but later recommissioned again in 1986 after 28 years of being inactive.  That’s 28 years of doing nothing but sitting there and I find it amazing that it was never scrapped.
• In 1991 the Wisconsin fired Tomahawk missiles and it’s 16-inch guns during Operation Desert Storm.  And this is the part I found most amazing about the special which showed documentation to prove the following.  The ammunition used for those 16-inch guns were made in 1937.  What was made to fight the forces of Japan was being used on the Iraqi Republican Guard.   Keep in mind that ammunition weighed about 2700 lbs and could travel about 24 miles.
• She was decommissioned again right after Desert Storm in 1991 and is currently a museum ship operated by the Hampton Roads Naval Museum.